LAST week's royal wedding sparked off a scramble for memorabilia - but not the way either the Palace or the souvenir suppliers wanted.

Collectors are snapping up anything bearing the original - now incorrect - April 8 date of the nuptials.

Tea towels, mugs and badges are in demand as collectors gamble on reaping the rewards of rarity in years to come.

Still, a postponed wedding's small beer compared to the experience of Charles's great-uncle, Edward VIII. He became king in 1936, but abdicated months later to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.

He was never crowned, and that constitutional crisis set off a collectors' binge that has lasted until the present day.

Because Edward was never crowned the Mint didn't circulate any coins bearing his head, but samples had already been sent out - to coin machine manufacturers for example. These now fetch colossal sums.

John Hayward, coins and medals expert at dealers Spinks, says: "A five shilling piece from 1937 sold recently for #55,000. You're looking at #25,000 for an Edward VIII penny, #13,500 for a shilling and #25,000 for a florin."

And if you have one of the very few Edward VIII nickel-brass 12-sided threepenny bits in your attic, you're staring #35,000 in the face. Spinks should know - they've got one for sale.

Don't just think coins. Coronation mugs and plates were rolling off the production lines, and a lot of towns, schools and colleges had their own medals or souvenirs struck to mark the crowning that never was.

Another favourite "royal", pop princess Kylie Minogue, came out with an album called Impossible Princess in 1997.

Her timing could have been better. After Princess Diana was killed the album was withdrawn, and original copies have in the past fetched #70.

Susheila Prasad at Beanos, the record collector's mecca in Croydon, Surrey, remembers the five-piece band Steps who came out with a single called Baby Don't Dance.

"They split up immediately and the record was never officially released," says Susheila.

But a few got out and made their way into collections. Today they fetch #60.

Keep a look-out, too, for Jimi Hendrix's Band Of Gypsies album with a puppet of John Peel on the cover. He objected and the puppet was removed, and the original cover is now worth around #50. But pride of place in the record market must belong to God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols. "It was manufactured and ready for release, but the A&M label then dropped the band," says Susheila. Surviving copies now fetch a whopping #6,000 or so.

Stamps are another rich seam to mine. Steve Matthews at dealer Stanley Gibbons tells of the 14p Christmas 1988 stamp. But some had been printed at the old 13p face value. Most were withdrawn but a few escaped. "Only 10 or 12 have ever turned up but they've got a catalogue price of #6,500."

As for the correctly priced 14p stamp, it's now worth 45p.

Check out the pictures on the sides of any Huntley & Palmer biscuit tins you may see lying around. Back in the 1970s, the designer of one scene featuring a Victorian country cottage tea party was sacked as he was working on it.

He got his own back big time - by inserting a couple having sex in the bushes and two dogs at it in the flower-bed. Tesco were not impressed, but collectors were.

Robert Opie of the BBC's Twentieth Century Roadshow says: "These tins - and there are a lot of them - have sold for as much as #400. Today, though, around #60 is a more realistic price-tag.

Spare a thought, too, for brewer Youngs, based in South London. They produced a range of beer mats featuring their own home borough - and misspelled it "Wansdworth".